The invention relates to a teat, especially for use by babies or small children. The teat can also be designed as a bottle teat or as a pacifier.
Conventional teats have a base and a hollow and elastic mouthpiece protruding from it. In the case of a bottle teat, the mouthpiece has at least one drink opening and the base is provided with a circumferential flange or fastening ring for releasable fastening on a bottle. Bottle teats also usually have an integrated ventilation valve, which enables pressure equalization with the surroundings. It is also known to form the ventilation valve in the contact area between the flange and the opening edge of the bottle. In a pacifier, the base is a mouth shield, via which the teat is supported on the lips and mouth area of the child.
WO 2008/154 968 A1 describes a teat with a nipple support and a hollow teat protruding from the nipple support, which has areas with a smaller wall thickness at least on two opposite-lying longitudinal sides. Due to these thinnings, the teat is flexible and exerts less pressure on the jaw during use. Moreover, the teat is provided with additional, strip-like areas with a smaller wall thickness, which progress at a distance from the middle plane of the nipple shaft approximately parallel to the areas with a smaller wall thickness and continue up to into the area of the nipple head. The deformation of the nipple head is facilitated through a controlled buckling in the strip-like areas with the smaller wall thickness.
DE 20 2004 005 564 U1 describes a bottle teat with a mouthpiece and a dome-shaped support of the mouthpiece called an areola part, wherein the support has a flexible area, which enables a bending of the mouthpiece towards the support and away from the support. The flexible area is formed on the inside of the support by several channels surrounding the axis of the mouthpiece.
Based on this, an object of the invention is to provide a teat, the use of which by a child is considered more pleasant.